OUR MEMBERS IN THE OPPOSITION.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 90, 21 September 1868, Page 230

OUR MEMBERS IN THE OPPOSITION.

Judging from; the.; tone: of certain articles published iin-the Advertiser (the semi-official • organ of the Ministryjj, wp-may conclude that the defectipfr ifrotm, the.- ranksof the .Government supporters' by}the representatiyes;ofrHawke’s:Bay,;hascaußed :jthe leaders ;of that-party.y The-Adyertiser striyep

to make it appear that the people of Hawke’s , Bay, .attributing , the re_ moval of our small defende foree from the Province to such defection were so indignant at their representatives as to call a meeting for their condemnation, but that by a clever exercise of diplomacy bn their part, such indignation was diverted from them to the Government. The Advertiser concludes its illnatured effusion, in which the people of Hawke’s Bay are elegantly styled “ residents of the Iron Pot,” by an indication of spitefulness in the form of a ministerial threat, which we regard as utterly contemptible. The article is as follows— The astuteness of the Prince of Hawke’s Bay has achieved a very satisfactory little victory in minor political tactics. The storm in the Iron Pot, to which we alluded to in our last was cleverly escaped by liberal use of the telegraph, and a public meeting which originated as an indignation meeting against the redoubtable cliief- , tain, by good management, was converted into a vote of confidence. The two or three score of persons who constitute the public of the Irou Pot had fancied the influence of their great chief was on the wane when the Constabulary were ordered away. The little grocers’ bills and grog scores were imperilled, and an expenditure was going to be lost. It struck wise men that to. their chief’s change of policy must be due so glaring a- failure to carry out all the golden dreams to which they had been latterly accustoming themselves, instructed by the sanguine chieftain’s sanguine satellites—and the right remedy seemed to be an immediate return to the fold of the Government. How they were re-assured, what steps were taken to restore that confidence which was voted, we do not know but we do know that the sensational telegrams from Napier are almost without foundation, and that the alarm expressed has very slightly agitated the waters of the Pot. "We admire the ingenuity and ready resource of the Highland politician, but fear he will find that such little victories are costly too, and would suggest to Mr Stafford some curtailment of his telegraphic facilities.